Street Talk

Submitted by
Name: col bogey
From: a different era.

Comments:
in a short walk downtown I seen the soon to be empty kdh ambulance garage,the old dollar store,the building at mulberry and fountain alley and that old furniture store next to courthouse { if you ever been upstairs there it is amazing view }.Not counting all the space above downtown buildings. All have parking etc.Just need to be brought up to code.------this is what pace money should go to if anything.I personally don't believe in the pace program, Its has only strengthed landlords grip over the poor. We are basing to much on fleecing the out of Towners. Tourism has ups and downs

Added: August 23, 2025 03:23:12 PM

Submitted by
Name: Answers.

Comments:
I sent JB an image of the wheel tax information .

Yes Courtney knew if he implemented a Wheel tax that Madison citizens would need to pay it twice. Yes the county will need to implement the same tax. While Courtney’s push and city councils go along vote to serve Bob was irresponsible and in some cases cruel to our working poor who can’t afford such taxes- the county’s is actually responsible. With the cuts that came from the State GOP controlled house and the Republican governors new slashed budget- local communities needed to find a way to pay for road repairs. Obviously most are using county wheel tax and the majority of mayors and city council aren’t double taxing just because they can. But here we are:

Double the wheel tax
New Food and beverage tax
5 million handout to millionaire developers from Carmel
Giving away city land that was promised as green space for a multi level - flood plain apartment complex for wealthier persons,
Subsidizing housing so wealthier people can pay less rent
Police standing guard and locking people out of public meetings
Public meetings held privately and violating public access law
Lies, a few more lies and falsified grants
Willfully ignorant
…, …, …,

Added: August 23, 2025 12:49:06 PM

Submitted by
Name: Fred Shimfessel
From: Madison

Comments:
"Crushed" would be the word to describe the current state of the people of this town. The way Courtney, Steinhardt, and this City Council are trying to ram this thing down the throats of the people. It has made a deep impact to the psyche of Madisonians. The citizens are mentally taken aback to the Trumpian attitude of these public servants. In the past, it didn't matter what party or group you belonged too. At the end of the day, Madisonians thought we could all work together to hash out the differences and work to build a better Madison. This group of public servants have changed the way the game is played around here. The poster below made the comment "Madison is not the nice place it used to be." This statement is correct. This is all on Courtney and his group. I admit I had high high hopes for Bob Courtney when he was elected to office. I thought he would bring positive change and a new expertise to his role as Mayor. I had known this guy since we were very young growing up in downtown Madison. I never thought he would be the sell out he has become. He promotes "he grew up on Walnut Street." But his actions say he is with the elites. It appears he will twist words like a pretzel to push his agenda despite the feelings of a majority of the people. His quote "people are afraid to speak in favor of the Riverfront Apartments because they are afraid of the mob mentality." This could be nothing further from the truth. Bob knows this and using this as a shield to reinforce is agenda to the City Coucil to obtain the votes he needs to push his agenda. Its just a ploy to run over the citizens of this town and plant the flag in our face to say "Look who runs this town." Just ask credible pillars of the community like Dr. Bob Canida. Dr. Canida stated that 90 percent of the people are against this project. I don't know what happened to Bob. I don't know Tony Steinhardt but I thought he would atleast be for the people in the town he grew up with. Karla Eades Krebs and Jim Bartlett are huge disappointments. The investment to those who grew up in Madison to live our lives in this town. Has made many rethink there future because of Bob, Tony, Karla, Jim, and the others. They should be ashamed of themselves for doing this to Madison. They have forever changed who we are just to prove a point. As I started this post, It has crushed the soul of this town. I wish I could come up with a solution because Bob, Tony, Karla, Jim, and the others clearly don't have one!

Added: August 23, 2025 12:51:13 PM

Submitted by
Name: Downtowner too
From: Madison
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
My personal opinion of course but Madison just doesn't seem to be as nice a place as it once was. Many contributifactors. Lack of responsible) leadership on the part of the mayor and almost all the city council. Higher taxes and nothing to show for it. Lack of police, cost overruns at the pool, bad road planning. Like perpetually telling lies to cover up lies, Courtney is constantly trying to find ways to get money to cover his fiscally irresponsible ways. I honestly wonder how Courtney can look at himself in the mirror. That goes fir certain members of the city council. FBC

Added: August 23, 2025 09:11:02 AM

Submitted by
Name: Betty
From: madison

Comments:
Someone on Facebook just ask if there had ever been a Deputy Mayor? The answer is "no" and, until recent years the position of mayor was part time. I realize we are now in the 21st century, and things have changed. I proudly served as secretary to Mayor (Dr.) Warren Rucker for 4 years, then was elected clerk treasurer and served with him another 4 years. During that 8 year span Hank Bentz was the Special Projects Administrator and probably the closest thing to the Deputy Mayor that we had. But, things got done! Charles Keller was Street Supervisor also over the water and sewer department, Harold Lakeman was parks director and we had good streets and a great recreational department! All that done with a part time mayor!!!!

Added: August 23, 2025 09:28:57 AM

Submitted by
Name: Conservative
From: Madison
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
What has happened to the Republican Party locally and nationally ? If you have enough of my money to build apartments , condos sell the land let a developer do it and send me a check and stop raising taxes

Added: August 22, 2025 03:44:57 PM

Submitted by
Name: answers

Comments:
Can I explain what the mayor is doing? I will do my best. I’ll use the READI grant the mayor wrote to help untangle things and deal with what I believe is a strong effort to keep things confused and muddy, not just to make it hard for citizens but also and especially make it hard for city council too.

First thing first- The mayor is working to subsidize housing- we’ve done this before, we are doing it now and it’s a good thing for the community to help our poor and working middle class – It currently is costing around 25 thousand for us to help build units for struggling families, single moms, disabled veterans etc.

BUT the mayor isn’t subsidizing that kind of housing. He is subsidizing housing for the "well to do" at “market rate”. He wants you to subsidize housing for "professionals" who make over $100,000. (one hundred thousand). That means instead of pitching in and paying 25 thousand to help build one unit for those trying to support themselves but can't find reasonable homes, we are now subsidizing really great, high end apartments. It costs over 100 thousand to build these extra nice apartments that well to do, professionals will want to live in. That's 100 grand per unit based on READI numbers. In other words we could help build 4 apartments for families or we can build one for extra special people that could afford to pay their own way- but don't want to.

The READI grant doesn’t explain why he wants to help wealthier people instead of investing in those who work the hardest or need the most help. While you need to pay a wheel tax and food and beverage tax to “pay for local parks and roads”. The mayor will take more than five million from our general and tif fund dollars to give to out of town millionaires to help them build brand new -high end housing for well to do people who will only pay $1500 in rent -or at least that's what it says on the READI grant.

So yes the mayor is giving tax money to out of town millionaire developers to help them get richer and helping high income people pay less in rent. I’ll explain all the smoke and mirrors later. The next thing up will be the alleged housing shortage downtown and why the mayor continues to say we don't have enough homes. tjh

Admin reply: The County Council has scheduled two last-minute special sessions next week to act on a new vehicle and wheel tax. Before voting please consider the consequences for our city residents who are already subject to the same tax just adopted by the city of Madison.
If the county also adopts the same tax, city residents will pay the tax twice. Yes, this is double taxation (without representation). For this reason alone, the councilmembers must advocate for all Jefferson County citizens and vote no to this controversial new tax.

Added: August 22, 2025 12:30:43 PM

Submitted by
Name: This is Rich
From: This is Rich

Comments:
Is anyone else upset about people living in the city of being text twice? It just doesn't make good sense to me if you live in the city you ought to pay the city wheel tax and if you live in the county you should pay the county wheel tax. It seems to me that no one should be paying both. I've got family in the city that's going to pay both it just doesn't seem right. And this additional dining tax that is actually a tourism tax., they need to just charge the tourists. Don't charge the locals that. Man I'm telling you since these people got in all they want to do is tax and tax and tax and spend and spend and spend. What happened to smaller government less taxes. And this tax bill we're going to get just scares the living life right out of me. If they go by our assessed value as they say it's going to be ugly.

Added: August 22, 2025 10:46:26 AM

Submitted by
Name: @watching madison

Comments:
Who’d you vote for ?

National taxes? Making Billionaires richer.
State taxes, who'd you vote for?
Still taxing us but no money comes back here.
Local- who’d you vote for-
Wheel taxes and food and beverage and more to come -
why? So we can pay for luxury apartments in the river

So who’d you vote for-? :!cry:

Added: August 22, 2025 11:17:59 AM

Submitted by
Name: A disappoined taxxpayer
From: Madison
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
To go along with Watching Madison... That person stated the problems necessary semi trucks will have turning on and off Main St. with the new curbs in place. Emergency vehicles, i.e. Madison's fire trucks, will have problems too, especially the big, green machine. These vehicles will require getting into the opposite lanes just to make a turn on these side streets. These turns may cause trucks to run over the curbs. Think of what the curbs will look like afterwards.

Added: August 22, 2025 10:43:17 AM